Washington — The start of the year has seen massive layoffs across US companies as they streamline operations amid rising adoption of AI tools.
Meta Platforms is planning significant layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, Reuters reported exclusively last week, citing three sources familiar with the matter, as the social media giant seeks to offset the massive spending required to compete in generative AI.
Tech giant Amazon said late in January that it was cutting 16,000 roles worldwide in the second major round of job cuts at the company in three months.
Meta plans to cut around 10% of the employees in its Reality Labs division who work on products including the metaverse, according to a New York Times report.
Nike is laying off 775 employees, primarily impacting distribution centre roles in Tennessee and Mississippi, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Citigroup will cut about 1,000 jobs as part of a plan announced two years ago to reduce the workforce by 20,000, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters
Morgan Stanley has cut about 3% of its workforce, or roughly 2,500 employees, across all divisions. Reuters
OCI posts higher second-half sales on stronger nitrogen demand
Gdansk — Dutch fertiliser maker OCI reported higher sales for the second half of 2025 than a year before on Monday, aided by an increase in nitrogen sales.
The company booked revenue of $519m from continuing operations in the six-month period, up 11% compared to the second half of 2024. Reuters
StoneX proposes all-cash takeover of CAB Payments at £241m
London — Financial services firm StoneX Group on Monday proposed an all-cash acquisition of CAB Payments, valuing the cross-border payments provider at £241.4m.
StoneX’s approach follows a series of takeover attempts for CAB, which earlier rejected a sweetened bid from a Helios-led consortium.
StoneX’s 95 pence-per-share ($1.26) proposal represents a 20.25% premium to CAB’s closing price on Friday. CAB in February rejected a $1.15-per-share bid from the Helios-led consortium, saying it fundamentally undervalued the business. Reuters
Thames Water faces potential nationalisation amid debt crisis
London — A group of Thames Water’s creditors have offered £3.35bn of new equity and up to £6.55bn of new debt as part of their latest bid to rescue Britain’s biggest water company.
Thames Water, which is at the centre of a sewage scandal in Britain, could be nationalised if regulators fail to agree on a deal with the group of senior creditors, which includes Invesco, Elliott Management and Silver Point Capital.
Monday’s proposal — part of the creditors’ latest offer called London & Valley Water — increases the pledged investment compared to a £3.15bn equity proposal made in October last year.
“The L&VW proposal is non-binding and remains subject to ongoing review by the company, Ofwat and other regulators, and subject to discussion with the company’s financial stakeholders,” Thames Water said in a statement. Reuters
UniCredit takeover move targets Commerzbank stake
Frankfurt — UniCredit’s planned takeover offer for Commerzbank is a “clever technical move” to surpass the 30% ownership threshold while intensifying talks with stakeholders, corporate governance expert Andreas Thomae at mutual funds group Deka said on Monday. Reuters
Russia fines Telegram 35-million roubles for banned content
Moscow — Russia has fined the Telegram messaging app 35-million roubles (R7.2m) for failing to remove banned content, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Monday.
Authorities have repeatedly accused Telegram, one of the most popular messaging apps in Russia, of allowing itself to be used as a platform for illegal and extremist content.
Telegram rejects the charge and has accused Russia of trying to throttle its services in order to force people to switch to a state-run app called MAX. Reuters
